Provence to Pondicherry
Recipes from France and Faraway
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- £12.99
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
Tessa Kiros, renowned for her exquisite food and travel books, takes us on a fascinating journey across the globe to explore French culinary influences in far-flung destinations. Her journey begins in Provence, where Tessa first fell in love with French food, and explores the Mediterranean region’s links between the indigenous ingredients, flavours, materials and traditions.
She then takes the path of early French explorers, travelling to the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean; Vietnam in South-east Asia; Pondicherry on the Bay of Bengal, India; La Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean; finally returning to France and landing in Normandy, where the cuisine is so different from the South of France. In each destination, Tessa delves into the history and culinary traditions of the country (or region), discovering how French cuisine has become embroiled with local ingredients and traditions.
The result is an intriguing collection of recipes that will appeal to all those with a broad interest in food and culture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her 10th cookbook, Kiros connects culinary traditions of four former French colonies Guadeloupe, Vietnam, the Pondicherry territory of India, and the island of La R union in the Indian Ocean along with chapters on Provence and Normandy. The conceit is clever and draws a thread between far-flung places. In Provence mussels are cooked with tomato and pistou. In Guadeloupe they are served with breadfruit "french fries." They are married with chili and lemongrass in Vietnam, with masala in Pondicherry, and with combava (aka kaffir lime) and cream in La R union. They are paired with cider in Normandy. French technique ingeniously combines with local ingredients, including in a crepe-like potato dosa; Vietnamese bo bit tete; and steak frites with a spicy, sweet-sour marinade. The book's design is lovely, with each location covered by an introduction and notes on local flavors, climate, and customs. Provence is evoked by "closed shutters, sun shining through the leaves of the plane trees... pastis glasses scattered on bar tops." Occasionally, however, Kiros romanticizes colonial life: at least some of those "workers for the plantations brought in from Africa, India, and China" to La R union would more accurately be termed "slaves."
